Universal Pion Freeze-out in Heavy-Ion Collisions
Nuclear Experiment
2012-08-27 v2
Abstract
Based on an evaluation of data on pion interferometry and on particle yields at mid-rapidity, we propose a universal condition for thermal freeze-out of pions in heavy-ion collisions. We show that freeze-out occurs when the mean free path of pions lambda_f reaches a value of about 1 fm, which is much smaller than the spatial extent of the system at freeze-out. This critical mean free path is independent of the centrality of the collision and beam energy from AGS to RHIC.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.nucl-ex/0207008,
title = {Universal Pion Freeze-out in Heavy-Ion Collisions},
author = {CERES Collaboration},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-ex/0207008},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
5 pages, 3 figures, revised version resubmitted to PRL